The Mid-Season Invitational (MSI), which will be held in Korea four years after Busan in 2022, will be held at Exhibition Hall 2 of the Daejeon Convention Center (DCC) from June 28 to July 12.
Riot Games released details about MSI on the 22nd (Korean time). This is the first time that a LoL e-sports global competition is held in Daejeon. However, the LCK held the LCK Summer Finals here in August 2023.
The Korea e-Sports Association publicly recruited MSI venues in July last year, and Daejeon was selected.
There are some changes in this MSI format. 11 teams will participate, an increase of 1 team from last year’s 10 teams. In the case of the play-in, four teams go through double elimination and one team heads to the bracket stage. The seven teams start immediately from the bracket stage.
This includes the 1st seed team from each region and the LPL 2nd seed team that recorded a higher performance in the first stand among the LCK or LPL teams participating in the first stand. As Gen.G Esports and BNK PeerX were eliminated early from the LCK in this tournament, the 2nd seed team selected through ‘Road to MSI’ will start from the play-in.
Riot Games Chris Greeley, global head of League of Legends (LoL) e-sports, expressed his expectations at an online press conference, saying, “This venue will not only host world-class competitions, but also provide a rich fan festa experience encompassing various elements that make the league special, such as gameplay, creators, cosplay, and music.”
Regarding the reason for selecting Daejeon as the host site for MSI, he said, “The reason Daejeon was selected was because after reviewing several candidate cities, the passion of the fans was very great even though Daejeon had never hosted a large-scale international event. In addition, the fact that the city itself was very accessible was also a big attraction. It was a decision made to provide the best experience to on-site fans, and the fact that we could be together with Daejeon’s passionate fans was highly valued.”
Reporter Kim Yong-woo (kenzi@dailyesports.com)